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Amy Dowden has shared the heartbreaking revelation that she came close to dying when she developed sepsis after beginning chemotherapy for stage 3 breast cancer in May 2023. The Strictly Come Dancing star described how doctors had told her parents – Gillian and Richard – and her husband Ben that going into septic shock had left her “unresponsive”.
Speaking on Andy Coulson’s Crisis What Crisis? Podcast, the dancer said her mother was given the devastating news that her daughter would not be able to function for more than 16 hours before her organs began to fail. Luckily, the 33-year-old BBC star has since been on the mend, with her latest scan revealing that there are no signs of cancer remaining in her body.
Describing her terrifying sepsis battle, which came soon after her first round of chemotherapy, Amy recalled her ordeal after collapsing at home on a Saturday afternoon. As the ambulance took her to A&E, the star remembered feeling “scared” about picking up an infection on her way to hospital as she had “no white blood cells” at that time.
While Amy was admitted with an infection with her family around her, doctors later assured them that evening that she was ok and able to return home. However, things took a turn for the worse the next morning when Amy’s husband and parents were told by the hospital: “The doctor wants to speak to you.”
Amy’s parents “broke to the floor” upon hearing that their daughter had developed sepsis, as her aunt had died of the same infection just one year before. To make matters worse, the doctor then revealed the blood clot in Amy’s lung was “unresponsive” to treatment.
Amy explained: “My parents went into meltdown mode, Ben went into protection mode of them, and when they got to the hospital I wasn’t in the room.
“I was having an emergency CT scan and the doctor had just said to my – my mum had to walk away.
“My husband said that he’d said my heart rate and my blood pressure was so low that I probably wouldn’t function more than sixteen hours, my organs would go into failure. They felt I’d gone into septic shock.”
Thankfully, Amy began to respond to new antibiotics, but she was sad to wake up to see how devastated her family were following the ordeal.
She said: “I saw the pain in my parents’ eyes, and I don’t think they’ve been the same since.
“It was so tough for them to have watched that, especially after what we’d been through with my auntie.
“And yes, I don’t think they’ve been same or never will be the same again.”
Listen to Amy Dowden on the Crisis What Crisis podcast hosted by Andy Coulson.
